


The Ties that Bind

by Prochytes



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-08
Updated: 2011-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-22 09:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prochytes/pseuds/Prochytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One man, and the attitude of five loved ones to his neckwear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ties that Bind

**Author's Note:**

> No spoilers. Originally posted on LJ in 2011.

1.

 

“Get that tie out of my face, Danny. It offends my eyes.”

 

“I see. The man who’s in an abusive relationship with his shirt is giving me advice on ties. That’s special.”

 

“I’m serious. Did you ever actually learn to tie a knot?”

 

“Clearly I missed out on the Secret Forbidden Technique of tie-knotting they teach in SEAL school. If you think you can do a better job, my friend,” Danny waved expansively, “be my guest.”

 

Steve did that decision-making tell, the one where he looked swiftly from side to side, as if he were crossing a road, or making snipers. “OK.”

 

Danny had a good view of Steve as he deftly plucked apart and reknotted the tie. (It wasn’t easy to see much else if Steve was standing in front of you; the man was basically God’s attempt to push the envelope on the maximum acreage of well-muscled chest compatible with human physiology.) He could see Steve’s expression as he talked about knots, and naval tradition, and the crucial role of the one in securing the other.

 

Danny imagined McGarretts descending the ages, father on son, each impeccably roped up to the next.

 

2.

 

 It was way too hot to work a scene. Danny wished that he could arrest the weather of this godforsaken island as an accessory. He pulled his finger around the inside of his collar.

 

“You could always take that thing off, you know. It must be difficult wearing it right now.”

 

Chin was watching him quizzically. The witnesses were milling. The cops on the scene studiously avoided looking at Chin. Danny sighed.

 

“I could. But have you ever gone on doing something _because_ it was difficult?”

 

Chin scratched his head. “I hear you, Danny. I hear you.”

 

The cops started questioning the witnesses, and continued to avoid looking at Chin.

 

3.

 

“That tie’s a mess, Daniel. Come here.”

 

Danny submitted to his ex-wife’s ministrations, with a meekness that was in no way related to the exceptional view of Rachel’s cleavage this afforded. Not even slightly.

 

“I don’t know what I did wrong, Rach.”

 

“It’s too long at the back, and you’ve let it snarl up under the collar.” This close, he could smell her perfume. “A good tie is a careful creation, Daniel. Everything important happens where you can’t see it.”

 

“‘Huh. Is that an English thing?”

 

“No, Daniel.” Rachel’s smile was a little sad. “It’s _the_ English thing.”

 

4.

 

“Yes, sweetie. That’s Danno’s tie. I repeat... urgh... ‘tie’. Not – and I want us to be absolutely clear on this – a swing. Nngghh. Please let go, Grace, because your father is old, and needs his oxygen. Don’t make him use the countermeasures from Uncle Steve’s garrotting seminar. Urk. Please?”

 

5.

 

“Don’t tell me that you’re an expert on ties as well, Kono. I’ve seen you wearing less material on your entire body than I have hanging from my neck.”

 

“A tie’s a journey, Danny. And we both know a lot about those. May I?”

 

“Go right ahead. Everyone else has.”

 

Kono’s hands were slender, and deceptively strong. Danny was morally certain that he had once seen her punch through a wall. True, it had been an interior wall, and Danny had been a bit woozy at the time on account of having believed that Steve would keep his word about not using that stun grenade, but still. Kono bent to her task with a thoughtful look on her face.

 

“You have to hold tight, in order to let go.” She formed the knot, and brought up the broad end of the tie behind it. “You have to go away...” (she raised the broad end upright, and fed it back down into the knot) “.... in order to come home.”

 

Kono pulled the tie into place, and patted the result.  “Do you see?”

 

“Wow. That’s Zen. I’m wearing my own little piece of Zen.”

 

“Zen with a mustard stain. Don’t they have dry-cleaning in Jersey?”

 

“Away with you.”

 

FINIS


End file.
